How to: Flatbreads and hummous*

There have been dried chickpeas sitting in my cupboard since I made beetroot hummous a long time ago, pre-blog in fact. It was probably a good thing, the hummous was not very good, after tasting it even the smell made me gag. I didn't eat beetroot for a long time after the disaster for fear of being reminded of the horrible taste and smell of that hummous.

So to find those chickpeas in the back of the cupboard bought back bad memories to say the least. But just like when you get thrown off a horse, you have to get back on before you lose all your confidence. So I got those chickpeas out and decided to make a plain and simple hummous, there would be no additional ingredients in there. No siree.

So all you need is:

150g dried chickpeas

75ml olive oil

Two cloves of garlic

150ml tahini

Juice of two lemons

150ml of juice that the chickpeas were cooked in

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Add the chickpeas to a saucepan full of hot water and bring to the boil. Partially cover and then leave to simmer for 2-3 hours or until the chickpeas are tender.

Drain the chickpeas but retain the liquid they have been cooking in. Keep a tablespoon of chickpeas to one side and put the rest in to the blender along with the garlic and blend until you have a coarse paste.

Add the lemon juice...

olive oil...

tahini...

and 150ml of the reserved cooking liquid and whizz until you have a smooth texture to the hummous.

To serve, sprinkle with cayenne pepper, the remainder of chickpeas and drizzle with olive oil.

No hummous would be complete without flat bread to dip in to it.

These are so easy to make, the recipe is from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage book (where this blog all started many moons ago!)

All you need is 250g plain flour, 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil and 150ml warm water.

Sift the flour and salt in to a bowl. Slowly pour the water and olive oil into the flour while mixing with your hands.

Knead the dough, on a floured work surface, for five minutes and then cover with a bowl and leave for 15 minutes.

When you are ready to eat the flatbread, roll the mixture in to a sausage shape and cut in to four. Roll each individual section in to a ball and then, using a lot of flour so that the bread doesn't stick, roll out the balls into rounds that are 2-3mm thick.

Heat a frying pan or griddle until red hot and then heat for two minutes on the first side (or until you start to notice browned areas forming) and then heat the other side for just a minute.

I kept the dough in the fridge overnight until I needed it so if you only wanted one or two you could keep the rest in the fridge until you need it.

Et voila. Enjoy.

*How do you spell yours? After a quick google I found there are eight different ways to spell hummous.